by Christa Wick
"In nine generations, you're the most powerful witch the clan has known and this…" Camille rubbed her hands against her legs, her words getting lost in the movement.
"Pick the wolf or I'll do it myself!" Coop bellowed and pushed the coffee table between them to the side as if ready to immediately carry out his threat.
Dana rose, his growl telling Esme he was seconds from transforming. Coop growled back, coarse hairs sprouting along his hands and neck. As clan alpha, his display of power should have been enough to force any wolf to submit, but the younger wolf seemed immune to the command. Esme heard the pop of muscles and cartilage behind her, Coop's dominance slowing but not stopping Dana's shift.
Seth moved from the door, his hand up as a signal for Coop's beta to stand down. "Dana--"
"I told you not to bring him," Coop snapped.
Esme wished Seth had listened. The request was humiliating enough without Dana there to witness it.
"It's not my oath," she whispered, shaking her head, knowing that her protest was lost on the clan alpha. Blood bound blood, no matter how many generations had passed. There was no stronger law in magic than that. Her ancestor’s oath was all Coop needed.
"You'll be free if you do," Camille whispered. "This kind of blood magic will break the oath's power. Whether you stay or leave, it will be by your choice."
Esme thought she saw tears shining in her mother's eyes. She shook her head. Tears weren't possible, not from Camille. And her words were lies, whether the older witch realized it or not. Even if the ceremony broke the oath, a new oath likely would be extracted or she would be forced off clan lands. Coop had her coming and going and he knew it. The other clan alphas would follow his lead, particularly after Gordon, the last unbound healer, had betrayed them.
She would be degraded if she obeyed, dead if she didn't.
"Esme." Dana pushed past Seth and dropped to the ground in front of her in human form. His hand covered her knee for half a second before she shrank from his touch.
She knew he was staring at her face, could feel the searing intensity of his gaze, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him. "Make him leave."
"Baby, we--" His hand wrapped around her ankle, the grip possessive and demanding.
She jerked her foot up, curling her leg between her ass and the cushion as her body protectively folded in on itself. There could be no "we" between her and Dana. Once, a long time ago, the possibility had been there. But he'd walked away from her. Slowly at first then like a fucking freight train.
That kiss she had waited for in the field fell on another woman's mouth and then another's. His hands had wrapped around other women's hips, held them tightly to him as he penetrated their bodies.
She'd had a decade of loneliness -- a cold hard bed with just her in it, the very quality that had led her to this moment, to Coop's demand that she spread her legs and let a wolf take first blood.
Now Dana was all but begging to be that wolf. Not because he actually loved her or wanted her -- he'd had ten plus years to claim her. No, he'd been sniffing around her the last six weeks because a sequence of chemicals commanded his selection of her as his mate.
"Ems…"
She felt her chest crack open. He'd called her that only a handful of times over the last decade. Each time had been like a knife in her heart, reminding her of what could have been, sparking the stupid hope that something had changed when nothing ever changed, not his casual indifference, not his frequent if only temporary bedmates.
"I only wanted you to have what I couldn't give you."
The words caught as they left him, hooking and tearing chunks of flesh as they passed through his throat and out his mouth. She still didn't believe him, wouldn't be so stupid as to let that hope back in.
Esme looked up. Refusing to meet Dana's gaze, she glared at Coop, her acceptance issued as a single word. "Cade."
"Ems--"
"Cade," she repeated, her whole body wanting to climb up the chair and away from the wolf at her feet.
"Esme." Dana's voice was a low rumble of menace.
"Cade." Her voice shook on the final reiteration, her heart pounding in her chest to shake the name free.
Dana rose, his eyes as dead as they were deadly. "Fine," he snarled. "I'll fetch him for you. How many pieces?"
He spun on his heels, Seth trying to growl him into obedience. Fabric started to strain as both men hovered at the edge of their transformation.
"Move." Dana's claws extended.
Seth's claws quickly followed suit. From the opposite door, Coop's beta moved at last, his clothes ripping and falling to the floor. The clan alpha hovered at the edge of his seat, snarling and snapping to no effect.
The knowledge that Dana would not back down until someone was bleeding half dead on the floor cracked Esme's chest open a little wider. She could care less about Coop and his beta, but she didn't want Leah's baby born fatherless, didn't want…
She tried to shake the image of Dana dying on the floor from her head, but the vision wouldn't dislodge.
"Stop!" Her cry was wet with tears. She buried her face against the chair's leather cushion, not wanting anyone to see her capitulation. "I won't choose Cade."
"Baby--"
She felt Dana's hand on her shoulder, slapped blindly at it. "Go! I don't want to see you before or after!"
He hesitated and she screamed into the chair. "Leave now or I'll take it all back!"
Eyes glued shut, her hands covering her ears, she felt Dana slink away. Another long week would pass before she saw him again, when her magic and Dana's wolf totem were as full as the moon in the black sky above them.
**********
Esme spent the week in self-imposed isolation. Her magic unstable from the strong emotions running through her, she had Seth find other homes to foster the latents. She refused to meet his gaze when he came to retrieve them, knowing rage and resentment burned in her eyes. It sizzled across her skin, the air around her crackling with energy.
The whole house seemed possessed with her anger. Doors opened and slammed shut without her near them. Glasses shattered inside the cupboards. When Camille visited the day before the ceremony with instructions for Esme's ritual cleansing, the blue skies vanished on her arrival. Big black clouds materialized to drop hail the size of grapefruit on her mother's car.
When the night of the full moon finally arrived, she stayed in her room. She greeted none of the four witches summoned to mark the compass points outside her home while Dana mounted and shamed her. Facing her bedroom window, her stare blank, she ignored Camille as the older witch dressed the bed in charmed linen. And when her mother had the audacity to approach her, to reach out as if to place a comforting hand on Esme's shoulder, the floor-to-ceiling wardrobe began to quake, its vibrations building until it threatened to crash down on both women.
Alone, the robe around her naked body uncharmed, she waited for Dana's arrival with her eyes closed and her head filled with memories. She saw the two of them, both outsiders within the clan, running through the woods together. Only ten and human, she was no match for his shifter's speed but he never pulled too far ahead, just enough to duck behind a tree so he could scoop her up when she ran by, twirl a circle with her in his arms, his forehead touching hers, and then place her back on the ground and run ahead. Esme at four, a lisping shy girl in her mother's healing room when Coop came back from a rescue mission with an unknown, orphaned cub who couldn't -- or wouldn't -- shift to human form. Esme sneaking back into the room that night against her mother's orders, her already generous frame curled against his shivering body as she smoothed her fingers through the dense undercoat and whispered her favorite calming spell. Her waking hours later next to a little boy with blond hair as dark as her own and yellow-gold eyes that sparkled like topaz.
Feeling Dana's arrival outside her home, Esme wiped angrily at her eyes and wished she could live life in reverse -- that tonight was long past and tomorrow she would wake and look into those taw
ny eyes for the first time, everything between them fresh and full of promise.
All the way at the opposite side of the house, separated by three walls and sixty feet of floor space, Esme sensed Dana's first step on her porch. The vibrations of the impact rippled across wood and carpet, growing heavier with each step until Esme felt like she was on the ocean, tossed by giant waves.
He didn't knock, just paused outside her door for a few seconds with his palm against the wood, feeling her presence as clearly as she felt his. Still alone in her room, she shook her head. It wasn't right to feel someone so strongly when she wanted nothing more than to forget he ever existed. She inched toward the headboard, stopping when her back met the hard, cold surface.
The knob twisted. Dana pushed the door open, taking everything slow and cautious as he studied her face. His cheeks flushed a dark red. His chest lifted in deep breaths made deeper by the wide flare of his nostrils. Black pupils clouded three quarters of his iris, leaving only a band of gold around the glittering dark inset.
His hand brushed along her cheek, cupping her face. "We'll take it slow--"
She shook her head, the dark blonde curls whipping around her face. She wanted it over and done. This wasn't mating or lovemaking -- only ritual fucking. It required neither time nor desire -- just a shield and its penetration.
Dana shook his head in return, denying her any hope of a quick ending. His other hand came up to capture the opposite side of her face and hold her immobile as his fingers trailed down her throat to slip beneath the robe's lapel. He pushed lightly, baring her pale white shoulder.
Shifting his weight, Dana placed one knee on the mattress. He traced her collarbone with one fingertip, the trail descending down between her breasts as his gaze soaked in more of her exposed flesh. Leaning closer, he forced her head to tilt back as his other hand dipped inside the robe to palm her breast.
Heat radiated from his palm, searing her flesh like an open flame. His lips brushing against her cheek, he tugged at her nipple. A kiss followed, just below her ear as he pinched her breast’s swollen peak. "I said slow, baby. All night if that's how long it takes for you come to your senses."
Esme turned her head to stare at the lamp, her vision blurring. She sucked a hard breath in, aching with the knowledge that her own body was complicit with the clan's betrayal. When he touched her, it hurt. When he stopped touching her, it hurt even more.
Dana sank to his knees on the floor. One arm rested along the outside of Esme's thigh, keeping her caged between his body and the headboard as his fingers unknotted the robe's sash. Thinking of all the women he had bedded, their trim, athletic bodies, she reached for the light.
He pushed the lamp out of reach and returned to the knot. "There’s no hiding tonight."
Dana slid the sash from the loops. Fisting the lapels, he guided Esme onto her back. His hand slipped beneath the fabric to possess her hip. His cheek brushed hers, his mouth resting lightly against her ear. "I've always wanted you. You were my first wet dream, baby."
"Don't call me that." Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her body fighting for more air as her lungs constricted inside her.
He shushed her, his grip on her growing more possessive as he tugged her closer. "Children, you said. Do you remember that? You wanted lots and lots of children."
Dana captured her face with both hands, forcing her to look at him as one leg slid across her thighs, his body lightly draping hers. "You wanted the one thing I couldn't give you -- stop punishing me for trying to let you find it elsewhere."
Within the tight confines of his hands, she shook her head. He'd done no such thing! Even if she had wanted another male, human or not, he wouldn't let anyone near her. Already outcast as one of the only humans on the clan's lands, he'd isolated her further, few males stupid or confident enough to dare his fury by getting closer to her. He'd discarded her and made sure no one else would pick her up.
"Love--"
"Don't!" She pushed at his chest. "Don't call me that! Not love, not baby. Finish this so I can be through with you!"
His gaze hardened, the yellow-gold of his irises starting to glow with red embers. A needle of fear pushed into her chest. He wouldn't hurt her. Not physically, not even intentionally. But he had so many ways to make her pay for denying him, whether he knew it or not.
Dana pulled back. Standing, he stripped his shirt off, his hard stare never leaving her. Esme had seen him bare chested before, mostly when healing an injury when Camille was off clan lands. She’d never allowed herself to get lost staring at the sculpted muscles, massive biceps or the brush of gold-brown hair along his chest that narrowed and darkened as it disappeared below his beltline. But never before had he been minutes from mounting her.
"Roll over," he commanded.
Lips trembling, Esme closed her eyes and rolled onto her stomach. His hands swiftly stripped the robe from her and she shut her eyes more tightly, so tight light danced against the inside of her eyelids. He pushed her knees up under her, her ass elevated in the air in a pose of submission. Still in his pants, his feet on the floor, Dana leaned over her. One hand smoothed along the curve of her bottom as his teeth gently sank into her shoulder. He licked the spot he had just bit, his tongue moving in sync with the glide of his fingers against her lower lips.
"Notlove, you're wet."
There -- notlove, mocking her arousal -- that was him hurting her as only he could.
"I'm going to take what I've always wanted from you, notbaby." His callused fingertips found her clit, bullied it with soft strokes along its length. "At my pace."
He pinched the clit, making Esme gasp with need and surprise. The sweet rub of his fingers resumed, his voice rumbling through his chest as he taunted her. "Again and again, I'm going to take it from you."
Yes. She couldn't say it, but the word rang inside her, low and with its own insistent throb.
Dana stepped back to strip the rest of his clothes away. When he returned, she felt the wet rub of his cock as he trailed the head along the inside of her thigh. His body oozed a slow, thick stream of pre-cum that he marked the back of her legs with before his hands took up their slow tease of her pussy once more. He kissed her lower back, center spine and moving up as he increased the pressure against her clit.
"Getting wetter, notlove." He kissed her throat, sucked at the flesh until she was sure he had bruised her. Her ass started to wiggle, her hips taking shallow thrusts she couldn't control. He rubbed his forearm against her slit, soaking the soft brush of his body hair with her juices. "That tight little pussy is absolutely leaking, notbaby."
Esme pressed her face against the mattress, her arms under her and wrapped around her stomach in a futile attempt to contain her need. Dana stepped behind her, his thick cock sliding easily between her plump, lubricated thighs to rub against her pussy. His fingers smeared her juices up between the heavy cheeks of her ass, over the clenched pucker of her anus. He bent down behind her, his tongue following the same path, teasing the entrance to her pussy, sliding across the smooth skin of her perineum to rim that other hole.
She whimpered, her whole body relaxing in a single hot rush before she clenched her muscles tight in denial. She felt the soft rumble of laughter against her backside. He took a small nip of her lush bottom then thumbed her cunt, stretching the hole open to admit his tongue. She jerked, her body rocking forward for an instant before slamming back to meet his face. Another bite along her bottom, a little harder, more demanding. His fingers smeared more of her juices between her cheeks, the tips growing bolder.
"Look at me, Esme."
There was no denying the command in his voice. His dominance curled like a fist around her spinal cord, jerking her head until she faced him, eyes open and glaring. He glared back, the red-gold irises trying to stare her into complete surrender.
"It's gonna break hard -- you're gonna break hard," he warned, "if you don't stop fighting."
He stroked his hand along his dick, drawing her gaze to its mo
uthwatering size and teasing another squeaky whimper from her throat. Pre-cum still oozed from the fat crown. Dana rubbed his sticky fingers against her breasts, thumbed it across her nipple and along her stomach, marking her as his. Heaven help any man that came near her while his scent still lingered.
Esme pushed at his hand, her stare hardening. She wasn't his, didn't want marked, didn't want the memory of him on her skin. Growling, he bent down, grabbed his pants and pulled a small wrapped disk from one pocket.
"You can't!" He couldn't claim her with the latex on. The instructions had been clear. His skin against hers for that moment of contact before he obliterated her shield or her sacrifice was wasted.
"I know." His gaze grew more predatory. A wolfish smile shaped his mouth as he rolled the condom down his heavy shaft. He gently caressed the opening of her pussy. "I'm not taking your sweet cunt, notlove. Not yet."
The smile broadened, a hint of fang showing as his hand moved up her perineum. "I'm taking something else entirely."
"No." She barely got the word out, her throat constricting to trap the air in her lungs.
"Yes." He moved behind her, his hands heavy on her hips as he pulled her to him. "You're not driving this train tonight, Ems."
He rubbed his cock between her labia, her heavy juices soaking the latex. He bent one last time, his face pressed between the globes of her ass, his tongue teasing the hole into relaxing as his hand drew more moisture from her and coated his dick.
"No," she whispered, pleasure tightening her chest as Dana pushed in, the wide head stretching her slow and steady, forcing admission with a dip and roll that left her quivering. Her opening accepted him, swallowed the whole head and sucked at the shaft as she started to moan.
Dana draped his torso across her back, his forearm against her belly, his fingers parting her labia to tease her front and back. "Every inch of your body belongs to me tonight."
He started to push against her, a light bounce that dragged his cock back and forth through her, his fingers rigid against her clit as she slid up and down their length, moaning, rolling, holding back her pleas of harder, faster. She panted against the linen bedspread, her breath tinted blue with the magic that uncoiled inside her. More blue light seeped from her pores, her pussy, each moan bent and hued as it left her.
